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Quilt Blocks

Several quilting and sewing contests and giveaway opportunities have crossed my desktop, and I don't want you to miss out. Check the deadlines: they're coming up fast! Stop by the Quilting Arts booth at IQF for a chance to win this tote full of goodies. Do you have a quilt, wall hanging, or garment...

One really has to marvel at the talent of our quilting foremothers. With basic geometric shapes and materials they had at hand, these (mostly) women made quilt block patterns . Then they made them their own, taking the traditional quilt blocks and putting their own spin on the design. Rotating simple...

Idle hands were frowned upon in my house when I was growing up. There was always something to do. If I wanted to watch TV (and I wanted to watch TV!), I had to be doing something productive at the same time. So I would sit down with either knitting or embroidery , and watch to my heart's content...

What does "modern quilting" mean? Lots of white in the background is a hallmark of modern patchwork quilting style. There are a lot of opinions on what modern quilting is — and isn't. But one thing's for sure, modern patchwork quilting is hot right now. On the first episode of...

I'm past the stage where I am making baby quilts for my children. This picture shows the first baby quilt I ever made-for my baby Sam (now 13 years old). I love that this quilt is worn and stained. I love that it is well-used and cherished, and that it carries my special message to my baby boy written...

I'm so looking forward to meeting with the fiber art group I belong to, Sisters in Cloth, this coming weekend for our annual extravaganza. It is a sort of party where we get together on a Saturday, have a great lunch, do a lively show and tell, have a speaker or technique demonstration, and sew together...

Sometimes an idea for surface design is so simple, you wonder why you never thought of it before. That's how I felt when I first saw Rose Hughes' tutorial on using crayons — the kind kids use, nothing fancy-as a resist method with fabric paint. Fabric painting with crayon resist by Rose...

Recently a coworker brought in a treasure she'd acquired while visiting a friend in the Midwest: six vintage handmade quilt squares. Each one had been carefully pieced using the tiniest of hand stitches. My inherited handmade quilts. Everyone in the office gathered around and oohed and ahhed at the...

Spiderweb Quilt, 55" x 65" When I first became interested in quilting, I spent hours staring at traditional quilt squares trying to figure out how they were pieced. Some, like the log cabin pattern, are pretty obvious. But many block quilt designs present an optical illusion. What looks like...

'Birdhouse' block quilt by Tina Givens. These days, in the quilting and sewing world it's hip to be square. The popularity of modern patchwork designs means that fiber artists are creating — and clamoring for — contemporary quilt block patterns for quilt designs and other patchwork...

Machine and hand embroidery are the hallmarks of art quilt design and construction. Depending on the stitch and the thread or fiber used, embroidery techniques can give your quilts a contemporary edge or vintage charm. In this free eBook, Essential Embroidery Stitches: Free Hand and Machine Embroidery...

A sampling of fabric art from the swap. What do you get when you challenge a bunch of mixed-media and fiber artists to create their own 9" x 9" fabric swatches to be swapped? You get nearly 200 pieces of amazingly creative fabric and a whole lot of very happy artists. That's just what happened...

Barbara Brack man has come out with a line of fabric called “Civil War Reunion”. Read on to see the inspiration behind this line, and learn a little about Civil War quilts in the process! You have recen tly put out a new line of Fabrics with Moda entitled “Civil War Reunion”....

If you opened up your GPS or Google maps and did a search for the intersection of traditional and modern quilting, I bet the pin would drop right on top of Malka Dubrawsky. Malka has an amazing eye for taking basic patchwork quilt blocks and giving them a fresh and contemporary spin using color and freehand...

We’re all familiar with mixed-media art quilting, but rarely does one see this medium interpreted in wood. Nonetheless, mandolin maker Rolfe Gerhardt was inspired by his wife’s quilting (her piece "Fall Splendor" is shown here), and decided to create a mandolin with the theme of...